Hitting a snag

It seems that I have hit a snag in my wanting to live a healthier lifestyle and that I have reverted back to the same habits I had once I started this life style choice.

I have A LOT of bad habits when it comes to dieting, which I don't even like to call it that because I'm not just dieting I'm trying to make some serious changes in my life. My spouse and I recently bought a house that needed some work done to it before it is able to be moved into and with being there long days we have started to eat out, and by eating out I mean the heavy fat crap that is served at most places when you just want something quick to eat so you can get back to work. Since we have bought the house I have been stuck in a rut and just keep going round and round with my bad habits. I had steered off chocolate for a couple weeks (and I work in an office where several people have candy jars on their desk!) but this week and some of last week I find myself raiding their candy jars telling myself it's only a little piece of candy, but that little piece of candy becomes the size of a king sized candy bar in no time.

I do keep a food diary and I have read on several weight loss blogs such as Get Fit Slowly and Weight Loss Journal and they talk about the importance of keeping a journal as well as my Dr. which I do keep a journal on thedailyplate.com which is a free service that allows you to keep a journal of your daily food intake and gives you the amount of calories to consume in a day to ensure that you loose 2 lbs per wk. Which since we bought this house has been very depressing and I'm finding it harder to get back on track now. My spouse is wonderful and tries to help me get back on track but I have been finding it harder this time around than when I first started. I crave foods high in fat and I want chocolate like crazy. One good thing about getting the house is that I have been more active, painting, going up and down a ladder, carrying things in and out which has helped in not actually gaining any weight.

I am hoping that since we now have a refrigerator in the house we will go back to cooking more, I also need to get a new pedometer since I broke mine and I did go on a 45 min walk this morning. I have my fingers crossed and hope to get back on track soon otherwise I'm going to have to change my blog name!!

Weight Loss Around the World

As many of us Americans know we are by far the most obese country in the world, although other countries are now starting to have problems of their own. We now have a new epidemic with childhood obesity, and I wonder how do other countries react to weight problems. I decided to look at countries that are on the same level of economic development as our own, and I came across How the Swiss Do It and they have a 70% success rate of individuals not only loosing weight but keeping it off (which is the biggest challenge), while in America we have a 5% success rate. Just looking at the figures one can easily tell who has the better weight loss program.

When you read over the article you see that these people have a 2 week hospital stay where their calories are reduced and they are to start an exercise regiment. They do this along with cognitive therapy, and art therapy. The cognitive therapy helps individuals get to the root of why they are over eating in the first place. I think this is a brilliant idea, when I get stressed out I want to eat, when I get depressed I want to eat and I'm a worrier so I am stressed all the time, this type of therapy would be a benefit to learn better habits and other ways of venting stress.

Mayo Clinic and researchers in Norway, Mexico and Australia have taken another approach which is a surgical procedure that is less invasive than bariatric surgery. It's a device that stimulates nerves in the stomach to make a person feel full, this procedure is reversible and have not yet been approved for actual use.

I like the way that the swiss do it, the only problem is most of these countries the health care is provided for by the government, so even with health insurance in America this kind of treatment would be very costly and that is if insurance even covers it. I plan to write a letter to my Dr. and asking her what she thinks of it.